143 résumés sent in; only 8 led to an interview. Why?

This was written by Jim Pawlak, who writes a syndicated column titled "Career Moves." It ran in the Sept. 30, 2012, edition of The Palm Beach Post. The
headline is shown above, in the heading. This is why you need a great cover letter andrésumé﻿.

In the hiring
world, employers often find that truth is stranger than fiction. My daughter got a first-hand Twilight Zone hiring experience.She is the executive
director of a downtown development authority. Its marketing director resigned a few weeks ago. An ad was placed.

She received
143 résumés. Clearly, many applicants had paid no attention to the ad’s requirements, or to the information on the website. Seventy-two had no cover letter; they were immediately eliminated. Sixteen
didnot follow other address/ submission requirements and were eliminated.

That left 55
— and she hadn’t even started reading cover letters or résumés. Upon review, 15 had no college degree; 12 had associate’s degrees. Of the 28 with a bachelor’s degree, only 15 were in marketing; many
weren’t in business fields.

Relative to
“merchant/ community event experience required” ... 15 of the 28 (including four of those with marketing degrees) had no event experience at all.Of
those who did, responses included: wedding planners, banquet managers, those who sold productsthrough
in-home parties, and a person who organized children’s birthday parties — none of these met the “merchant/ community event” requirement for the position.

“Prior work
experience in a nonprofit or municipality” was listed as desirable. Only eight had the experience; six of these had the marketing degree, too.

Grammatical
errors were more frequent. Any candidate whose résumé contained a spelling or a grammar error was eliminated because the ad said “excellent writing skills required.” While this job isgeared to written communication, many human-resources recruiters also believe that such errors in personal marketing
materials are indicators of poor work habits.

Résumé
objectives included: sales, customer service, hotel catering, wedding planner, medical sales, social services, and working with people with disabilities.What do any of these have to do with a marketing director’s position? If you are going to put an objective in your résumé, customize it to the ad.

My daughter’s
favorite cover letter read, “I expect I’ll have your job within two years.” Her second favorite was the one that actually applied for her job. Neither candidate made the initial
cut.The topper was the applicant who e-mailed a 63-page document package: a cover letter, a four-page résumé, college transcripts, copies of awards
won, andcopies of proposals she had written.

It took my
daughter and her staff eight hours to come up with a list of eight viable candidates. Their task was to trim that list to five “ready to interview” candidates.Their approach was simple: They came up with six phone-interview questions; three were based on the candidate’s résumé; three were based on information on the downtown
development authority’s website.

Each staff
member would call two candidates. Then they’d compare notes and make decisions. If a candidate seemed a good fit, my daughter, as executive director, would conduct a second phone
interview.

There was no
need to dosecond phone interviews, as three candidates eliminated themselves. How? They stumbled over
questions about accomplishments on their résumés and, apparently, had done no research on the downtown development authority; they could not even answer questions about its community-building
mission.

One also
asked if the salary was negotiable. To avoid such issues, the salary range was clearly stated in the ad.

All five
remaining candidates met the ad’s degree and experience requirements. Three met the ad’s marketing-degree preference; four worked for a nonprofit. Out of 143, there were five. Soon there will be
one. ﻿